View it and weep (I have seen some of this first-hand):
This excellent video is produced by my professional alma mater, the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.
And there are human interest stories (tons of them) like this:
UPDATE: But some residents are critical of the efforts so far. Stuart O’Neill, writing in The Democratic Daily, says he has seen first-hand high-cost bungling:
The story of the good coordination and efforts by federal authorities from the national media is a complete misrepresentation…..Just so you know this isn’t written from merely news resources: I watched that fire eat that canyon from a highpoint on my ranch about 2-3 miles away. I know the area. I was on mandatory evacuation and was nearly arrested merely trying to get back to the ranch to evacuate nine horses and some of my personal belongings. Right now I’m living out of my car.
This morning, at dawn, I watch the fire crawl over the top of a ridgeline that threatens the community of Hamilton Trail. There was no air support. The fire was on the ridgeline and could have been effectively attacked by air tankers. Orange County again had no, or too few, air tankers to make the effort. Again, I repeat, it could have been stopped or slowed this morning in my opinion.
That’s just a small excerpt. Read his entire post from beginning to end for a view that differs from much of what has emerged from news reports.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.